Tift Merritt w/ Dawn Landes and the Hounds

A pair of albums for Lost Highway Records at the beginning of the decade established Texas singer-songwriter Tift Merritt as one of the most promising of the new class of alt-country artists, but recent albums have taken the songwriter in some unexpected directions. Her aptly titled 2008 album, Another Country, was recorded after a long holiday in Paris and introduced a leaner sound, and her new See You on the Moon is even more stripped down and direct. Recorded with The Decemberists/Sufjan Stevens producer Tucker Martine and featuring My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, it is her most folk-oriented album yet.